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Topic: Pope Praises Closer Orthodox Ties (Read 2794 times)

"Pope Benedict XVI believes that relations between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church are increasingly close and has expressed his gratitude to the Russian Orthodox patriarch for pursuing dialogue."""It is with joy that I reflect on the experience of growing closeness between us, accompanied by the shared desire to promote authentic Christian values," Benedict said in the letter. He expressed hope that two churches could be even closer."http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/367899.htm

Sofia, April 21, Interfax - The Orthodox and Catholic Churches could form a strategic alliance for the protection of Christian values, Russian Orthodox Church Representative to European International Organizations Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria said in an interview with the Bulgarian magazine Christianity and Culture.

"We must realize that Orthodox and Catholic believers are no longer rivals. We are allies. The rivalry must be gone once and for all. If we understand that, proselytism will stop," he said.

'The romantic ecumenism' personified by the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches is not viable, the bishop said. In his opinion, it would be much better to form bilateral strategic alliances or partnerships, for instance, between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

According to Bishop Hilarion, joint Orthodox-Catholic "front" is required both to oppose to the challenges of secularism and to protect traditional Christianity and dialogue with other world religions.

He believes that many Protestants unlike the Orthodox and the Catholic have created "a light version of Christianity, without apostolic succession, without sacraments, without strict dogmatic teaching and what is also important they don't require sticking to Christian moral norms."

Such communities don't consider centuries-old sins as such and even promote them. When Christian community starts "revising theological or moral teaching of Christianity in order to make it more "modern" or "politically correct", it's a direct way to spiritual death," Bishop Hilarion said.

Moscow, June 9, Interfax - Not all participants of theinter-Christian dialogue are ready to pursue partnership andsolidarity, Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, Representative ofthe Russian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions, said.

"The divergence is so deep, that it can be compared to bottomlessabysses," Hilarion said in his interview to the Soyuznoye Veche, thenewspaper of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus andRussia, commenting his dialogue with a Lutheran bishop.

According to Hilarion, the bishop refused to recognize abortion as asin in a joint document, whereby he expressed "a more liberalapproach to this challenge" as compared to the position of the MoscowPatriarchate.

"If we fail to reach consensus even on such matters which areseemingly obvious to all Christians, what can we do about otherchallenges?" Bishop Hilarion said.

According to him, many Protestant communities are experiencing the"radical liberalization of morals" during the last decades, when, forexample, the same-sex union is considered a marriage, and members ofsexual minorities are ordained bishops.

"It's not just apostasy, it is sacrilege! Neither Orthodox, norCatholic Church can accept such drastic perversion of the Christianmoral teaching," Bishop Hilarion believes.

Statements on upcoming meeting between pope, patriarch may be diplomatic movePosted on Wed Jun 04 2008

Some progress has been achieved between the two churchesMoscow, June 3, Interfax - The Moscow Patriarchate doesn't rule out that the statement made by Cardinal Walter Kasper saying that Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Alexy II will meet in the nearest future may be a diplomatic move by the Vatican.

Kasper, who heads the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, recently said the pope and the Russian patriarch may meet in the near future.

"Such commentaries by one of the parties are sometimes a diplomatic move intended to put certain soft pressure on the negotiating parties. It's like they are saying 'We are glad, we are looking forward [to a meeting], why are you avoiding us?'" Deacon Andrey Kurayev, a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy, told Interfax-Religion on Tuesday.

Kurayev said he did not participant in the negotiations between Kasper and the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church and therefore cannot say which precisely nuances of the dialogue gave the cardinal a reason for optimistic comments.

At the same time, Kurayev said he is hoping that "some progress has been achieved in our relationship, and it is connected with the fact that the current pope, unlike his predecessor, is not personally responsible for the tragedies in the history of Orthodoxy in Western Ukraine in the early 1990s, when Greek Catholics literally ravaged three Orthodox dioceses."

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"Religion is a neurobiological illness and Orthodoxy is its cure." - Fr. John S. Romanides

Sofia, April 21, Interfax - The Orthodox and Catholic Churches could form a strategic alliance for the protection of Christian values, Russian Orthodox Church Representative to European International Organizations Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria said in an interview with the Bulgarian magazine Christianity and Culture.

"We must realize that Orthodox and Catholic believers are no longer rivals. We are allies. The rivalry must be gone once and for all. If we understand that, proselytism will stop," he said.

'The romantic ecumenism' personified by the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches is not viable, the bishop said. In his opinion, it would be much better to form bilateral strategic alliances or partnerships, for instance, between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

According to Bishop Hilarion, joint Orthodox-Catholic "front" is required both to oppose to the challenges of secularism and to protect traditional Christianity and dialogue with other world religions.

He believes that many Protestants unlike the Orthodox and the Catholic have created "a light version of Christianity, without apostolic succession, without sacraments, without strict dogmatic teaching and what is also important they don't require sticking to Christian moral norms."

Such communities don't consider centuries-old sins as such and even promote them. When Christian community starts "revising theological or moral teaching of Christianity in order to make it more "modern" or "politically correct", it's a direct way to spiritual death," Bishop Hilarion said.

Agreed! There are many issues our world is facing that such a partnership could help to combat.

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